Apple traded at $333 in the pre-market this morning as it continues the march to overtake Exxon as the country’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. We thought we’d share a little perspective.
If Apple’s market cap were a sovereign economy, it would rank as the 31st largest in the world. Larger than Denmark, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel. If just the cash and investments on Apple’s balance sheet were a sovereign economy, it would rank 73 out of the 183 countries monitored by the IMF. And Apple has no “sovereign” debt! That is not priced, in our opinion!
Global Macro Monitor 
Why did you pick market cap and cash? The relevant metric, though not identical, would be revenue ~ $65 billion…
Good point.. Was going to make comment about comparing stocks versus flows, but was trying more to make a point and then be theoretically consistent. Thanks for commenting, Pierre. Cheers!
To be fair, they are comparing apples and oranges. This is not Apple GDP vs country GDP, but Apple market cap to country GDP. It’s nonsense, as GDP is annual output, while Apple’s market cap is the net present value of the discounted cash flow of Apple’s output. Not the same thing at all.
And at this year, ipad helps a lot.
with the big screen display, ipad helps us enjoy movie&video. unlike most people I have ripped dozens of seasons of tv shows and hundreds of movies with the iFunia video converter for instant streaming.
Good points and you are correct. Comparing a stock to a flow variable can be construed as inconsistent. But we do look at Debt/GDP, Stock Market Cap/GDP, and most important today, is Banking Assets/GDP, which, is a good measure as to why some countries in Europe are in trouble today. Almost made the point you are making in the write-up, but thought I would lose too many. I knew the economist-types would respond, but wanted emphasize how massive Apple had become. Thanks for the comments, Chris.
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